What is the hottest part of the chili pod? Not the seeds. | Albuquerque Innsights Farewell to a Great Dog – My Mini Eulogy » What is the hottest part of the chili pod? Not the seeds. I was watching a food show on the Travel Channel the other day. It was Adam Richman’s Man vs Food. At one point in the broadcast he mentioned that seeds were the hottest part of the chili pepper and that burns me up because it is not so. I like Adam, and his show – but he is wrong on this one. If you really like the heat, cut the jalapenos like wheels leaving the membrane in, as if often seen on nachos, but for a more delicate flavor the strips seem to work better. The part of the chili pod that has the most heat is the membrane inside that the seeds are attached to. Seeds themselves do not hold much heat if any. The only benefit that the seeds may give you if you leave them in when preparing a dish may be as a source of fiber. This seed theory is a common misconception, but any expert on capsicum plants will tell you it ain’t in the seeds.

All chili peppers are members of the capsicum family and they all pack some level of heat, even bell peppers. Being a Jersey Girl I had no idea how to prepare chili dishes when I moved to New Mexico. I loved chili, but was clueless on what to do. I used to buy my new found culinary delight – fresh green chili – from the farmer’s market and used them as if they were bell peppers – just chopped ’em up fresh and threw them in with onions and other veggies when I sautéed. I even did this with spaghetti sauce, using the green chili in place of green bell peppers. I didn’t know any better, and ignorance was bliss for at least a year until a friend told me…”Ya know, you’re suppose to roast and skin those.” Huh? No wonder the skins seemed a little tough. I usually remove the membrane in jalapeno peppers, but you don’t have to skin these. So I got educated. Now after 30 plus years of practice I’m a pretty good New Mexican food cook, but over these 30+ years I have had a change in tastes, so to speak. In my younger years the heat was a blast – the hotter the better.

Now the flavor of whatever kind of chili I am eating is so much more important to me, so I remove the membrane of really hot chili peppers when prepping them for a recipe. The whole chili pepper has heat, but the majority of this heat is packed into the white membrane that the seeds hang onto in the center of the pepper. I feel I would be remiss in not telling you all that the heat in a chili pepper is no laughing matter when it comes to your delicate body parts, so be very harmful during and after prepping chili peppers of all kinds. DO NOT rub your eyes or touch/scratch any other part of yourself until you have had a change to thoroughly wash your hands, with soap, maybe more than once if the chili is really hot. Don’t change a baby diaper either. If you do experience the burn from any chili (capsicum) variety, use a milk product to soak the affected area until the pain is gone or bearable. This is not just my remedy, but also the advise of Poison Control here in Albuquerque. They get these chili pepper calls all the time. We had a neighbor from Utah who was very enthusiastic about green chili after moving to Albuquerque.

He did the usual New Mexico fall ritual of purchasing a freshly roasted sack of chili for use throughout the year. He brought it home and proceeded to skin and package it for freezing. He didn’t know any better and in the middle of his chili ritual he went to use the bathroom without washing his hands FIRST. We got the phone call of panic. We laugh about it now, but he wasn’t laughing at the time. It is a way too common mistake of new comers to our state. Ouch. If you will be prepping lots of chili, wear gloves or, at very least, use some olive oil on your hands and work it into your cuticles and under your nails. This helps a lot. For more info on chili peppers I highly suggest books New Mexico’s own chili gurus, Dave Dewitt and Paul W. Bosland. The best is their collaborative effort and in my opinion THE best book on all things pepper – The Complete Chile Pepper Book: A Gardener’s Guide to Choosing, Growing, Preserving, and Cooking. Enjoy your chili peppers, and be careful out there! I know the best things to eat in Albuquerque!

Chili Peppers - Food Reference CHILI PEPPERS Poblanos ; Chiles, Some Like It Hot Hot peppers (chilies) are often used to spice up dishes, and they are especially popular in ethnic cuisine including Mexican, Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, Arab and Spanish cooking. Chilies are an excellent source of vitamin C if you can withstand their powerful bite. Contrary to popular belief, the hottest part of the chili pepper is not the seeds but where the seed attaches to the white membrane inside the pepper. This area has the highest concentration of capsaicinoids. Capsaicinoids are flavorless, odorless substances that act on pain receptors in the mouth and throat. Capsaicin is the primary capsaicinoid. Capsaicinoids can be found throughout the flesh of chili peppers though their concentration varies in different areas so that one part of a pepper may be hot and another part of the same pepper quite mild. The seeds are often hot because they are in such close contact with the white membrane. There are several varieties of chili peppers (see box below) and each differs in flavor and heat intensity. Even within each variety, there may differences in how “hot” each particular chili is.

Typically, larger chilies are more mild because they contain less seeds and white membrane in proportion to their size. Most varieties can be found dried, canned, or fresh. VARIETIES Anaheim (California Green Chile or Long Green Chile): One of the most commonly used varieties in the United States, especially in stuffed chiles. This chili is long, slender and lobed, green or red in color and mildly hot. They can be eaten when green or when they are their mature red color. Ancho: Dried or fresh poblano pepper. Dried anchos are flat, wrinkled, and heart shaped. They range in color from very dark red to almost black. Anchos are mild to moderately hot and often soaked and ground for use in sauces. Cascabel: Green or red, small and round, moderately hot and typically available dried. When dried, their skin turns a translucent red-brown color and their seeds rattle inside. Cayenne (Long Hots): Red when fully mature, long (6 to 10 inches), thin and straight or curled at the tips. Very hot. Cayenne can be found dried and ground into a powder that is seen as generic "red pepper" in the spice aisle.

Cherry: Round and red like a cherry. Sold fresh or pickled in jars, these peppers range from mild to moderately hot. Habanero (Scotch Bonnet): Typically yellow-orange but they can be green, red, or orange. These peppers are lantern shaped and typically about 2 inches long. The hottest pepper grown commercially; intense fiery flavor; a unique floral flavor and an extremely intense heat that affects the nasal passages. Hungarian: These peppers start out yellow and ripen to orange or red; they are moderately hot. Jalapeńo: Most often green when mature but sometimes red, these peppers are about 2 inches in length with cracks around their stems. They are very hot, with an immediate bite. Jalapeńos are sold canned, sliced, and pickled and are added to many products during processing including sausage, cheese, and jelly. Poblano: Ancho peppers that are green. Poblano peppers look like small bell peppers and are mild to hot in taste. They are often roasted and peeled prior to being used in soups, sauces, casseroles or even stuffed with meat and cheese for a dish called chilies rellenos.

Serrano: Sold red or mature green and about 1 to 4 inches in length. Moderate to very hot with an intense bite. Serrano chilis are often used in Thai cooking and they are also quite popular in Mexico and the southwestern United States. Availability, Selection, and Storage Chili peppers are available year round and in the United States they are grown in California, New Mexico and Texas. When selecting chilies, look for firm, glossy chilies with taut, unwrinkled skin and fresh green stems. Dried hot peppers should be glossy yet unbroken. Chilies should be stored unwashed and wrapped in paper towels in the refrigerator for up to three weeks. Dried chilies should be stored in airtight containers at room temperature for a maximum of four months. To keep dried chilies for more than four months, store them in the refrigerator. Preparation It is very important not to touch your nose, eyes or mouth after handling or eating hot peppers. If you do, flush with water immediately. The capsaicin in the peppers can be extremely painful to your eyes and can even burn or irritate your skin (especially if you have cuts on your hands).

If possible, wear thin rubber gloves while preparing chili peppers. Wash hands thoroughly with soap and water when done working with chilies. If the bite is too strong when you eat a chili, chew on bread or another starchy food; water only makes the bite worse as it spreads it. To decrease the heat intensity of chilies, wash them, cut them open and remove the seeds and veins. Also, soaking cut up chilies in salt water for at least an hour will help cool them off. To add a mild pepper flavor to your dish, poke holes in the chili of your choice with a toothpick (or cut slits in it) and add it to a food that is already cooking. When cooking is complete, remove the chili from the dish. Chilies can also be roasted whole over a gas stove, broiler, or on a grill. Use a cooking fork to hold each pepper over flame. Turn frequently until the chili’s skin is blackened. After cooking is complete, place chilies in a paper or plastic bag for 15 minutes. Scrape off skin, cut off stem and pull out core. Scrape any remaining seeds. Preparing Dried Hot Peppers Use a damp cloth to wipe peppers.

Grind chilies in a food processor for use as chili powder. To soften their texture and make their flavor more mild, soak chili peppers in water prior to using. Make Chili Peppers Part of Your 5 A Day Plan Cut up and add to pizza as a topping! Dice and add to your favorite salsa recipe or any store bought salsa. Chop finely and add to salads. Serve as a garnish next to a meal and eat the garnish! Add to stews and soups for a stronger flavor. Sprinkle chopped hot peppers into meat loaf, tomato sauce or macaroni and cheese. Cook in corn bread for a zesty jalapeńo corn bread. The Seeds Aren't The Spicy Part Of Peppers The Seeds Aren't The Spicy Part Of Peppers The Seeds Aren't The Spicy Part Of Peppers Food When cooking with hot peppers, most recipes will instruct you to take out the seeds. This might cut down on the tough and tasteless parts of your meal, but it won't do much to reduce the pepper's heat. That's because the heat isn't in the seeds; it's in the white tissue or pith inside the pepper, also known as the placenta.

This is where you can find the glands that produce capsaicin, a colorless, waxy chemical that binds to receptors in your mouth to produce the sensation of heat. Though capsaicin may coat some of the seeds while they're in contact with the placenta, the seeds aren't spicy on their own. Deseeding a pepper is still a good idea if you want to cut down on its spiciness, just as long as you go the extra mile and remove the white part too. We've collected some awesome videos on this topic. Watch them now to learn more. Share the knowledge! Key Facts In This Video 1 Capsaicin is what gives peppers their heat, and it's most heavily concentrated around the tissues that connect the seeds to the pepper. (0:20) 2 Capsaicin binds to TRPV1 receptors in your mouth designed to detect hot substances. (0:46) 3 Capsaicin is a nonpolar molecule and water is a polar molecule, so it spreads capsaicin around your mouth. Milk is nonpolar, so it will dissolve capsaicin.

(2:09) View More Topics heat - What is the hottest part of a chili/chilli/chile pepper? - Seasoned Advice What is the hottest part of a chili/chilli/chile pepper? up vote 18 down vote favorite 2 I often hear different points of view to this question - some say the hottest part of the chili is its seeds, yet I've heard some (arguably more believable) sources claim that the white part that holds the seeds to the flesh is the hottest. What part of the chili fruit is the hottest? 1 oops... after editing chilli out in favor of chili I noticed OP is in Australia, where chilli appears to be the normal spelling. I don't appear to be enabled to rollback this edit, but it is still pending peer review so I hope that it either won't get 'approved' or can be rolled back quickly thereafter.

– Cos Callis Jul 4 '11 at 12:27 up vote 18 down vote accepted The Wikipedia article on Capsicum reads, citing a FAQ on a page of the ollege of Agriculture and Home Economics of the New Mexico State University: Capsaicin is present in large quantities in the placental tissue (which holds the seeds), the internal membranes and, to a lesser extent, the other fleshy parts of the fruits of plants in the genus Capsicum. Contrary to popular belief, the seeds themselves do not produce any capsaicin, although the highest concentration of capsaicin can be found in the white pith around the seeds. Cisneros-Pineda et al. measured via gas chromatography the content of capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin in the pericarp, placenta, and seeds of seven cultivars of chili peppers and the results confirm this: For dihydrocapsaicin, the difference is not so large, but the placenta still has a higher concentration. In terms of concentration considering fresh mass the difference won't be as dramatic because while the seeds lose around half their mass by drying, the placenta will lose 90%.

Bell Peppers: Planting, Growing and Harvesting Bell Pepper Plants | The Old Farmer's Almanac Rate this Article: Average: 4 (387 votes) Peppers are a tender, warm-season crop. They resist most pests and offer something for everyone: spicy, sweet or hot, and a variety of colors, shapes and sizes. For this page, we will focus on sweet bell peppers. Planting Start seeds indoors 8-10 weeks before last spring frost date. The temperature must be at least 70 degrees F for seed germination, so keep them in a warm area for the best and fastest results. Start pepper seeds three to a pot, and thin out the weakest seedling. Let the remaining two pepper plants spend their entire lives together as one plant. The leaves of two plants help protect peppers against sunscald, and the yield is often twice as good as two segregated plants. Begin to harden off plants about 10 days before transplanting. A week before transplanting, introduce fertilizer or aged compost in your garden soil.

After the danger of frost has passed, transplant seedlings outdoors, 18 to 24 inches apart (but keep paired plants close to touching.) Soil should be at least 65 degrees F, peppers will not survive transplanting at temps any colder. Northern gardeners can warm up the soil by covering it with black plastic. Put two or three match sticks in the hole with each plant, along with about a teaspoon of fertilizer. They give the plants a bit of sulfur, which they like. Care Soil should be well-drained, but maintain adequate moisture either with mulch or plastic covering. Water one to two inches per week, but remember peppers are extremely heat sensitive. If you live in a warm or desert climate, watering everyday may be necessary. Fertilize after the first fruit set. Weed carefully around plants. If necessary, support plants with cages or stakes to prevent bending. Try commercially available cone-shaped wire tomato cages. They may not be ideal for tomatoes, but they are just the thing for peppers. For larger fruit, spray the plants with a solution of one tablespoon of Epsom salts in a gallon of water, once when it begins to bloom, and once ten days later.

Pests/Diseases Blossom-End Rot appears as a soft, sunken area which turns darker in color. Pollination can be reduced in temperatures below 60F and above 90F. Too much nitrogen will reduce fruit from setting. Harvest/Storage Harvest as soon as peppers reach desired size. The longer bell peppers stay on the plant, the more sweet they become and the greater their Vitamin C content. Use a sharp knife or scissors to cut peppers clean off the plant for the least damage. Peppers can be refrigerated in plastic bags for up to 10 days after harvesting. Bell peppers can be dried, and we would recommend a conventional oven for the task. Wash, core, and seed the peppers. Cut into one-half-inch strips. Steam for about ten minutes, then spread on a baking sheet. Dry in the oven at 140 degrees F (or the lowest possible temperature) until brittle, stirring occasionally and switching tray positions. When the peppers are cool, put them in bags or storage containers. Recommended Varieties Look for varieties that ripen to their full color quickly; fully mature peppers are the most nutritious—and tastier, too!

Green to Red: ‘Lady Bell’, ‘Gypsy,’ ‘Bell Boy,’ ‘Lipstick’ Yellow: ‘Golden California Wonder’ Wit & Wisdom The popular green and red bell peppers that we see in supermarkets are actually the same thing; the red peppers have just been allowed to mature on the plant longer, changing color and also gaining a higher content of Vitamin C. Cayenne, Habanero, Poblano, Serrano: Know Your Chile Peppers - Chowhound About 4 to 5 inches long SPICINESS: 2 to 3 2. Guindilla Verde From the Basque area in Spain, this is a tender pepper with a distinct sweetness. The variety shown is from the Bilbao region, and Winsberg says it’s a good fryer served alongside meat like lamb or pork. It shouldn’t be confused with the more widely available jarred guindillas . Winsberg says guindilla is a name applied to several distinct regional varieties in Spain ranging from marble-size scorchers to these sweet large fryers, which he says are similar in flavor to a Hatch chile but without the heat. AVERAGE SIZE: SPICINESS: 1 3. Chilaca (a.k.a.

Pasilla) This is a Mexican variety that matures from dark green to dark chocolate brown. It’s a versatile pepper that’s good for sauces, roasting, and grilling when fresh, says Winsberg. Chilacas are medium hot but “not so much that they are scary.” When dried, they are called pasillas and are common in mole recipes; pasillas (also known as chiles negros) are available both whole and powdered. AVERAGE SIZE: About 7 to 9 inches long SPICINESS: 2 to 3 4. Basque Fryer (a.k.a. Piment d’Anglet, Doux Long des Landes) A French pepper used in many French Basque recipes. It is a twisty, long pepper that when green has a “very distinct peppery taste with a very tender skin, and lend[s] a nice chile zest without adding heat,” says Winsberg. When it turns red, it gets very sweet. It excels in sauces, chopped up and sautéed for a pipérade (the Basque fryer would replace the bell peppers in our recipe), or fried with meats or sausage. AVERAGE SIZE: SPICINESS: 1 5.

Anaheim Named after the city in Southern California, the Anaheim is a big, mild chile that’s good for stuffing. Its skin is a little tough, but it peels pretty easily if you roast it first . Anaheims are good roasted, cut into strips, and thrown into a salad; stuffed with meat and grilled; used in salsa verde; or added to cheese enchiladas. AVERAGE SIZE: About 5 to 6 inches long SPICINESS: 1 6. Cayenne This bright red pepper is usually consumed in its dried, powdered form, known as cayenne pepper. When ripe and fresh, cayenne chiles are long, skinny, and very hot. Winsberg says they are relatives of wild chiles from South and Central America. AVERAGE SIZE: About 2 to 6 inches long SPICINESS: 4 to 5 7. Guernica The Guernica is a Spanish pepper similar to the Padrón in flavor but bigger and without any heat, says Winsberg. It is often served fried like the Padrón or stuffed with cheese or other fillings. It develops a tougher skin as it matures, and then is best roasted and peeled.

AVERAGE SIZE: About 3 to 5 inches long SPICINESS: 1 8. Hot Banana Happy Quail grows both sweet and hot varieties of the banana pepper, known as bácskai fehér in Hungary. Winsberg says they are often used in Hungarian lecsó (a dish of stewed peppers and eggs), pickled, or served grilled with meats. AVERAGE SIZE: About 6 to 7 inches long SPICINESS: 2 9. Jalapeño (a.k.a. Chipotle) Familiar stuffed with cream cheese and deep-fried as a bar snack, or chopped up in salsa, the jalapeño is probably the best-known pepper in the States. It gets its name from Jalapa (also spelled Xalapa), the capital of Veracruz, Mexico. Harvested at both its green and red stages, the jalapeño is spicy but easy to seed and devein if you wish to remove some of the heat. When dried and smoked, it’s called a chipotle chile. AVERAGE SIZE: About 2 to 3 inches long SPICINESS: 2 to 3 10.

Serrano Spicier than the jalapeño, the serrano is a small Mexican pepper with thick, juicy walls, so it’s a great hot-salsa pepper, and is widely available and versatile. It is most commonly sold in its green stage (it turns red and then yellow as it gets older). You can also find serranos pickled or dried. AVERAGE SIZE: About 1.5 to 2.5 inches long SPICINESS: 3 11. Habanero Native to parts of Central America and the Caribbean, this little pepper packs a lot of heat. But contrary to popular belief, the Red Savina habanero is not the hottest type of chile; that distinction now goes to the Indian bhut jolokia, or ghost chile. Still, habaneros add a lot of heat to cooking and should be used judiciously. You’ll find different colors, ranging from red to white-yellow and even brown, but orange is the most common. Great for salsa, hot sauces, or a fiery jerk chicken. AVERAGE SIZE: SPICINESS: 5 12. Pimiento de Padrón This pepper is a specialty grown in Galicia in northern Spain.

It is traditionally eaten as a simple tapa, fried in olive oil and tossed with salt; it is harvested young and small, with a tender skin and no mature seeds, so it’s perfect for eating whole, bitten right off the stem. It is generally mild with a nutty flavor at this stage, but it gets hotter as it matures. Part of the fun of eating these peppers is that about one in a dozen will be pretty hot, says Winsberg. AVERAGE SIZE: About 2 to 4 inches long SPICINESS: 1 (but the hot ones, even when young, can be 2 to 3) 13. Aji Rojo Common in a lot of Peruvian cooking, the aji rojo is more of an orange-red than a true red pepper. It has a similar heat level to cayenne and can be chopped finely and added to ceviche or mixed with cheese or cream to make a sauce to serve over potatoes or chicken. AVERAGE SIZE: About 2 to 3 inches long SPICINESS: 4 14. Thai This tiny chile adds serious amounts of heat to Southeast Asian cuisines. You may find either green or red Thai chiles; both are very spicy.

Throw them whole into Thai soups like tom kha gai, purée them for curry pastes, or chop them up for any dish where you want to add heat without a lot of pieces of pepper. AVERAGE SIZE: About 1 to 2 inches long SPICINESS: 5 15. Bell The most common sweet pepper , bells are usually seen in red, green, and yellow, but there are also purple, brown, and orange varieties. They are a crunchy, juicy pepper that is great for eating raw on salads, sautéing, or roasting and chopping up to throw on a pizza or a sandwich. AVERAGE SIZE: About 3 to 6 inches long SPICINESS: 1 16. Hot Cherry These vary in size and shape and are very hot. They are usually round, though sometimes more of a triangular shape. Cherry peppers can also be sweet. They’re most often used in pickling: You can throw one in a jar with cucumber pickles to spice things up, or pickle them with other, more mild peppers. AVERAGE SIZE: About 1 to 2 inches long SPICINESS: 4 17.

Hungarian Pimento This is a type of pimento (or pimiento) pepper, which is what you often find stuffed in green olives. It is a large, sweet red pepper, similar to a bell but with an extra-thick, juicy wall. The skin comes off easily, so this is an ideal pepper for roasting. It’s also great to eat raw with dip. AVERAGE SIZE: About 4 to 6 inches long SPICINESS: 1 18. Piquillo The ultimate pepper for roasting, the Spanish piquillo has become very popular because of its intensely sweet flavor and bright red color. It is usually only available canned or jarred, but it’s becoming easier to find fresh. It is often roasted, peeled, and stuffed with a variety of fillings like salt cod, tuna, or cheese. AVERAGE SIZE: SPICINESS: 1 19. Shishito Popular in Japan, the shishito has thin walls, mild heat, and a little sweetness. It is good served like the Padrón: simply fried, drizzled with some soy sauce and sesame oil, and eaten whole. It also makes very tasty tempura.

AVERAGE SIZE: About 2 to 4 inches long SPICINESS: 1 to 2 (occasionally you might get a 2 to 3) Now that you've got the details on 19 different peppers, you're more equipped than ever to use them. Try some of our ideas for cooking with these chile peppers. RECIPES: 1. Red Pepper Hummus Roasted bell peppers are pureed with beans, tahini, and an array of spices and herbs to create a creamy red pepper twist on a Middle Eastern classic. This dip is filling enough to serve on bread with veggies for an easy meal or perfect as a snack served with warmed pita. The dip only takes 15 minutes to prepare and requires minimal effort. Get our Red Pepper Hummus recipe . 2. Chilaquiles Dried ancho chiles are the secret flavor powerhouse in this recipe for chilaquiles. This traditional Mexican dish is typically made with fried corn tortillas and then topped with anything from spicy chili sauce to meat to eggs. This versatile dish is perfect for anyone who loves tacos, nachos , or Mexican cuisine in general. Get our Chilaquiles recipe . 3.

Pipérade This French sauté is full of bright bell peppers and French spices. It can be served over almost any meat but we recommend Braised Chicken and Julia Child prefers it over an omelet. This recipe is perfect for the summer months when you have an abundance of vegetables and herbs lying around. Get our Pipérade recipe . 4. Roasted Red Pepper and Spicy Sausage Grilled Pizza Dried chili flakes are used in this recipe for Roasted Red Pepper and Spicy Sausage Grilled Pizza to create chili oil that is drizzled on the pizza. The pizza is also cooked on the grill for an irresistibly crunchy crust. This recipe can be made from scratch or sped up by starting with store-bought pizza dough. Get our Roasted Red Pepper and Spicy Sausage Grilled Pizza recipe . 5. Slow Cooker Quinoa-Stuffed Peppers This recipe is the perfect meatless meal. Red bell peppers are stuffed with protein-packed quinoa and salty feta. Serve this with a side salad for an easy weeknight dinner. Get our Slow Cooker Quinoa-Stuffed Peppers recipe . 6.

Grilled Padrón Peppers These small and slightly sweet peppers are generally mild, but one in every handful will be surprisingly spicy. They’re usually deep-fried, but grilling is a healthy and quick preparation that adds a smoky layer of flavor. Get our Grilled Padrón Peppers recipe . 7. Basic Roasted Bell Peppers Instead of placing the peppers directly under the broiler, we give them a little room by setting them in the middle of the oven. This extra distance allows them to roast a bit before their skins blister. Get our Basic Roasted Bell Peppers recipe . 8. Stuffed Bell Peppers with Feta and Herbs The sweetness of the bell peppers plays off the golden raisins in the filling, and the vegetal note is heightened by the herbs. Get our Stuffed Bell Peppers with Feta and Herbs recipe . 9. Chiles Rellenos Mexico’s version of comfort food. Chiles rellenos fillings can range from ground or stewed meats to a medley of vegetables, but this version sticks to classic cheese. Get our Chiles Rellenos recipe . 10.

Stuffed Poblanos with Black Beans and Cheese Serve these stuffed peppers them as a vegetarian main course or as a starter. They’re loaded with rice, black beans, sour cream, cheese, tomatoes, and cilantro, then grilled until the peppers are charred and tender. Get our Stuffed Poblanos with Black Beans and Cheese recipe . 11. Basic Jalapeño Poppers Broiling the peppers gives them a nice outer char and leaves the filling browned and bubbling. Get our Basic Jalapeño Poppers recipe . 12. Chicken Chile Verde With Anaheim chiles, poblanos, and dried Aleppo peppers, this dish is always a big hit. It’s great rolled into a burrito, but you can also serve it on its own topped with scallions, sour cream, and tortilla chips. Get our Chicken Chile Verde recipe . 13. Chicken-Fried and Pickled Pepper Sandwiches Use a variety of small peppers for pickling, such as baby bells, Cubanelles, or banana peppers. They combine on a sandwich roll with chicken breasts are dipped in buttermilk, then dredged in flour seasoned with paprika, black pepper, and ground mustard.

Get our Chicken-Fried and Pickled Pepper Sandwiches recipe . 14. Roasted Red Pepper Tart Roasted bell peppers and a creamy ricotta-feta mixture make for an easy, Mediterranean-inspired side dish that also travels well. Get our Roasted Red Pepper Tart recipe . Images: Chowhound What Makes a Jalapeno Pepper Hot? Capsaicin All About the Jalapeno Pepper: Capsaicin What makes a jalapeno pepper hot? Most of us love the jalapeño (and other beautiful peppers) because of the little “kick” we get when we take a bite of one. Sure, as far as taste is concerned, jalapeños are delicious, but that blast of spiciness that bursts in your mouth and ravishes your tongue is a powerfully added bonus, making hot peppers among the greatest flavors in the world. That spiciness we all love and crave comes from a compound called capsaicin that is found in all hot peppers. Interestingly enough, capsaicin is found in no other plant than the chile pepper. A single drop of this substance combined with 100,000 parts water is still noticeably spicy. Isn’t that great!

Capsaicin itself is tasteless and odorless and is produced by the glands in the chile pepper’s placenta, found at the top portion of the pepper below the stem. Note: The placenta is about sixteen times hotter than the rest of the pepper and is usually removed along with the seeds (another hot part of the pepper) when preparing food. If you’re looking for a good kick with your dishes, leave it in (along with the seeds), and see what you get. Oh yeah! Scientists have observed that many rodents and other small mammals do not particularly like the jalapeño, possibly an evolutionary advantage developed through the generations to protect the peppers from evildoers. Birds, however, seem to be unaffected by the pepper heat. This, of course, is an advantage to our friend, the chile, because when birds eat the peppers, they disperse the seeds through their droppings all across the land, thus perpetuating that thing we all love so much (though admittedly in a rather gross manner). What's So Hot About Chili Peppers? | Science | Smithsonian What's So Hot About Chili Peppers?

An American ecologist travels through the Bolivian forest to answer burning questions about the spice Joshua Tewksbury and colleagues study whether the hot stuff in chili fruit deters bugs that may carry fungus. (Tomás Carlo) By Brendan Borrell Smithsonian Magazine | Subscribe April 2009 Seated in the bed of a pickup truck, Joshua Tewksbury cringes with every curve and pothole as we bounce along the edge of Amboró National Park in central Bolivia. After 2,000 miles on some of the worst roads in South America, the truck's suspension is failing. In the past hour, two leaf springs—metal bands that prevent the axle from crashing into the wheel well—jangled onto the road behind us. At any moment, Tewksbury's extraordinary hunting expedition could come to an abrupt end. From This Story [×] CLOSE People have been eating chilies (a market in Cochabamba, Bolivia) for at least 8,000 years and cultivating the plants for 6,000. (Tomás Carlo) Joshua Tewksbury and colleagues study whether the hot stuff in chili fruit deters bugs that may carry fungus.

(Tomás Carlo) Joshua Tewksbury (in Bolivia's Amboró National Park) says this wild variety with tiny fruits may hold a key to chilies' most salient property. (Brendan Borrell) "Hey, I can't find my field notebook," Tewksbury calls out to colleagues after seeing a chili plant in a thicket of acacia thorns and cactus. Despite his sometimes seat-of-the-pants science, he has managed to figure out how capsaicin benefits chili plants. (Brendan Borrell) "Every valley we go into has a different chili," says Tewksbury (in white, with Carlos Manchego in red, interviewing a man in rural Bolivia). (Brendan Borrell) Tewksbury keeps on trucking. (Brendan Borrell) Tewksbury plots a census with Noelle Machnicki. (Brendan Borrell) Tewksbury looks for bug bites. (Brendan Borrell) "I had no idea what I was getting into when I said, 'Okay, I'll go to Bolivia with Josh,'" says Machnicki (with chili seedlings). (Brendan Borrell) Tewksbury taste-testing.

(Brendan Borrell) In 1912, chemist Wilbur Scoville invented the scale (measured in Scoville Heat Units, or SHUs) still used to indicate a chili's heat. (Tomás Carlo, iStockphoto, Wikipedia Commons) Photo Gallery A wiry 40-year-old ecologist at the University of Washington, Tewksbury is risking his sacroiliac in this fly-infested forest looking for a wild chili with a juicy red berry and a tiny flower: Capsicum minutiflorum. He hopes it'll help answer the hottest question in botany: Why are chilies spicy? Bolivia is believed to be the chili's motherland, home to dozens of wild species that may be the ancestors of all the world's chili varieties—from the mild bell pepper to the medium jalapeño to the rough-skinned naga jolokia, the hottest pepper ever tested. The heat-generating compound in chilies, capsaicin, has long been known to affect taste buds, nerve cells and nasal membranes (it puts the sting in pepper spray). But its function in wild chili plants has been mysterious.

Which is why Tewksbury and his colleagues have made multiple trips to Bolivia over the past four years. They're most interested in mild chilies, especially those growing near hot ones of the same species—the idea being that a wild chili lacking capsaicin might serve as a kind of exception that proves the rule, betraying the secret purpose of this curiously beloved spice. Bounding along in the truck, we reach a cluster of houses next to a river. Somewhere near this spot a few years ago, Michael Nee of the New York Botanical Garden collected a C. minutiflorum specimen, and Tewksbury wants to sample its relatives. In his notes, Nee wrote that the fruit he tasted was sweet. But Tewksbury just encountered the same species several hundred miles away and tasted it himself. That one was spicy, and the discrepancy was worth investigating. Tewksbury pops a wad of coca leaves—the source of cocaine and Bolivia's answer to espresso—into his mouth and steps smiling into the drizzling rain. A middle-aged man appears outside a low-slung house, his tan shirt open to his belt.

Tewksbury says one benefit of his research is he doesn't have to look too hard for his subject. He just asks the local residents, tossing out a few Bolivian names for wild chilies: Any ulupica? Any arivivi? The man shakes his head at the crazy gringo. Here? No. Up the mountain. Tewksbury is puzzled. "Are there any peppers without the spice?" he asks in broken Spanish. No, the man says. Tewksbury shrugs and crosses the highway to another yard, where a woman stands with a mop. She, too, says he must be mistaken. There's no ulupica here. The other four people in our group linger at the vehicle. We're wet. Biting flies leave red welts on our necks and arms. Noelle Machnicki, a University of Washington graduate student, has a plane to catch. Tewksbury marches down the road, hops over a strand of barbed wire, and lumbers up a slope through a tangle of moist weeds. The others make halfhearted efforts to scan the area around the truck, while I follow Tewksbury up the hill.

As he enters the forest, marble-size red globes catch his eye: C. minutiflorum. Tewksbury bites into a fruit. "Not pungent," he says, slipping a few into an envelope. He walks over to another plant. It, too, is sweet. Soon he has tasted fruits from eight plants and not one is spicy. This could well be an entirely mild wild chili population—the first ever—he muses, then erupts into a frenzy of free association, cooking up evolutionary trees for the strange chilies. Suddenly, a monkey in the canopy above us leaps from one branch to the next, and rainwater cascades onto our heads. Tewksbury watches the animal's acrobatics before performing some of his own: a vine snags his ankle and he tumbles face first into a chili bush, another C. minutiflorum. Dazed, he plucks a fruit and bites into it. He spits it out and grimaces—this one is hot. He couldn't be happier. People have been spicing up their food with chilies for at least 8,000 years.

At first they used wild chilies, likely adding them to potatoes, grain and corn, says Linda Perry, an archaeobotanist at Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. She has found traces of chilies on ancient milling stones and cooking pots from the Bahamas to southern Peru. Based on her studies of potsherds from different archaeological sites, she concludes that people in the Americas began cultivating chilies more than 6,000 years ago. Just why they did is a matter of scholarly debate. Perry believes it was a question of taste. "Chilies were domesticated early and spread very quickly just because people like them," she says. "Do you want a big pot of yams or a pot of yams with chilies thrown in?" Other researchers, such as Jennifer Billing and Paul Sherman at Cornell University, argue that people learned early on that chilies could reduce food spoilage. And some scholars point to medical uses. Ancient Mayans incorporated chilies into medicinal preparations for treating infected wounds, gastrointestinal problems and earaches. Laboratory studies have shown that chili pepper extracts inhibit a number of microbial pathogens, and capsaicin has been used in a local anesthetic.

Single Page Previous Page 1 of 4 Next 1 2 3 4 Like this article?

Question: Which parts of peppers are hot
Answer: Seeds